Components are subjected to thermal treatment to bring about changes in their microstructure and to develop various properties such as hardness, ductility or tensile strength so as to obtain the desired performance of the components. Thermal treatment is generally carried out by isothermal processing or cyclic thermal processing. Isothermal or cyclic thermal processing comprises isothermal or cyclic annealing, age hardening or sintering. During isothermal thermal processing, depending upon the material and nature of the components, they are heated to a set temperature, soaked at this temperature for a predetermined period of time and cooled to a predetermined temperature. Heating and cooling of the components is repeated for a set period of time before the components are finally cooled down to room temperature. During isothermal thermal processing, the surface and core regions of the components are invariably at different temperatures ie during the heating cycle the surface region attains the desired temperature faster than the core region and is hotter than the core region and during the cooling cycle the surface region becomes cooler faster than the core region and is cooler than the core region. As the core region lags in attaining the desired temperature, phase transformation kinetics at the core is not as fast as the phase transformation kinetics at the surface region. Therefore, development of changes in the microstructures and properties of the components vary or differ across the crosssection of the components. Such variations in the microstructures and properties of the components reduce the performance of the components. Moreover, the time required for isothermal thermal processing is longer thereby reducing productivity. Also, as the isothermal thermal processing involves heating of the components at a constant temperature for a long duration, the energy consumption is high. Because of reduced productivity and high energy consumption, isothermal thermal processing is very expensive. Due to high temperature heating for long duration, emissions from the furnace are also correspondingly increased. During cyclic thermal processing, the components are heated between two temperatures before being cooled down to room temperature. This accelerates phase transformation kinetics and development of changes in the microstructures and properties of the components. [Ref Acta Materialia, Vol 51, No 2, (2003) 339-346 titled “Accelerated grain growth behavior during cyclic annealing” by S. S. Sahay, C. P. Malhotra and A. M. Kolkhede; Acta Materialia, Vol. 50, No. 6 (2002) 1349-1358 titled “Enhanced densification of zinc powders through thermal cycling” by C. A. Schuh and D. C. Dunand; Metallurgical and Materials Transactions, Vol. 28A (1997) 1809-1814 entitled “Thermal cycling behavior of as quenched and aged ti-6al-4v alloy” by H. Geng, S. He, and T. Lei]. Due to the accelerated development of changes in the microstructures and properties of the components, the heating time is reduced and productivity is increased. As the thermal processing is carried out between two temperatures for a short duration, the energy requirement is also reduced correspondingly reducing emissions from the furnace. (Ref Forecast Issue of ASM Heat Treating Progress, January 2003, 44 titled “Energy reduction via cyclic heat treatments” by Satyam S Sahay). Due to increased productivity and reduced energy consumption, cyclic thermal processing is cost effective. During cyclic thermal processing also, however, development of changes in the microstructures and properties of the components differ across the crossection thereof as the core region lags in attaining the desired temperature as compared to the surface region. As a result, as in the case of similar to the isothermal processing, the performance of components obtained by cyclic thermal processing is also reduced.